Contact: Lisa Gunggoll,
708-829-8669,
lisa@lg-pr.com

CHICAGO, March 5, 2015 /Christian Newswire/ -- Catholic Extension, a national fundraising organization that works to make visible the power of faith in America's most marginalized communities, is participating in National Catholic Sisters Week by recognizing extraordinary women religious supported by Catholic Extension in some of the poorest places in America. The week is held in conjunction with National Women's History Month and also falls during the Year of Consecrated Life as designated by Pope Francis. Throughout National Catholic Sisters Week, March 8-14, Catholic Extension will honor sisters working in the dioceses it supports by sharing their stories on its website at www.catholicextension.org/nunsrock and in social media.

"You cannot go to the poorest areas of the country and not find the presence of the Catholic Church. In so many places the ministerial face of the Catholic Church is a woman religious," said Father Jack Wall, President of Catholic Extension. "In this Year of Consecrated Life, we want to shine a spotlight on the life-changing work of these women and National Catholic Sisters Week is a great opportunity to do so."

Women religious continue to do the vital work of building community, while empowering people, evangelizing and reaching the marginalized. Sisters funded by Catholic Extension are committed to training lay leaders who can carry on the essential ministries of the church that congregations have pioneered. In the last five years, Catholic Extension has provided more than $6.3M to support the work of women religious in 48 U.S. dioceses. More than $2.1 million has already been committed for fiscal year 2015.

Following is a preview of the sisters being honored:

• A sister who serves a large migrant community of Oaxaca people in California, Sister Sandra Ann Silva has helped bring the marginalized out of the shadows and give them hope while bringing them back to the faith. Find out why Sister Sandra inspired a priest in Chicago to commit funds raised on his 500-mile pilgrimage to the Camino de Santiago to support her ministry, calling her "single-hearted, tireless and a dynamic witness of Christ's ministry to the poor."
   
• The U.S.-Latin American Sisters Exchange Program, created through a $3 million grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. In a unique partnership, 35 women religious from Latin America are working in 11 dioceses throughout the United States by being present, encouraging, and forming people in faith. Following training at Mexican American Catholic College, the sisters are serving as bridge-builders (gente-puente) in multi-cultural communities who so desperately need their presence to minister to the growing Hispanic population.
   
• Recipients of the 2014 Lumen Christi Award – Catholic Extension's highest national honor – the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary have spent more than a decade ministering in a poor area on the U.S.-Mexico border populated by Mexican immigrants who have experienced challenges ranging from a 2003 tornado to the recent immigration crisis. Through their dedication and sheer perseverance, the sisters built not only a community but also a church while transforming the lives of the people of Penitas, Texas.
   
• Four Missionary Carmelite Sisters working in the tiny and poverty-stricken town of Hamburg, Arkansas. When the sisters arrived, the church was dilapidated and nearly empty. The sisters went door to door and showed the love of Christ to the people who now flock to church. With the sisters' help, the community is now turning an abandoned tire shop into its new place of worship to accommodate the rapidly growing congregation.
   
• The Felician Sisters were part of a religious minority in Kingstree, S.C., where Catholics represented only four percent of the population. Through a pact they made to be present to the people and respond to their every physical and spiritual need, the sisters crossed deeply divided racial barriers and created a family with 11 different Christian denominations and more than 60 volunteers of all ages and races. Their work helped transform the impoverished, crime-ridden and dangerous community one person at a time.

More information on the work of the sisters is available at www.catholicextension.org/nunsrock. Daily posts will be made on Catholic Extension's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/catholicextension and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cathextension using the hashtags #NunsRock and #NCSW. To request an interview or for more information about Catholic Extension programs, please contact Lisa Gunggoll at lisa@lg-pr.com.

About Catholic Extension: Catholic Extension is a papal society that has been supporting Catholics on the margins in America since 1905 and contributing to the growth of the Catholic faith by investing in people, infrastructure and ministries. Since its founding, Catholic Extension has distributed more than $1.2 billion in today's dollars to dioceses that cannot support themselves. For more information visit www.catholicextension.org.